Once Were Warriors, A Character Analysis of Jake

Summary: Reviews the novel, Once Were Warriors. Provides a character analysis of Jake. Describes how it is impossible to have any sympathy for Jake or to understand his violence.

The Maori culture has depicted its race to be a civilization of warriors over the generations; this depiction has rubbed of on different levels of status. Jake Heke is part of the `macho' stature who will go looking for a fight. In that aspect, you cannot have any sympathy for his desires. Jake feels that his only expression is in his macho actions, in that guise you can have some sympathy for him. Jake finds it hard to express his emotions at death as well as he knows that it was violence, which brought death to his door. In this countenance, you can have a lot of sympathy for him. Jake is not the type of person who would ask for sympathy, though he would not dish out any either. Sympathy has never been a part of the culture in which `Jake the Muss' has grown up. His...